Serena, Gauff Advance in All-American Lexington Openers

Having not played an official tennis match in six months, it didn't take long on Tuesday for Serena Williams to remember how to compete.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion opened her campaign at the inaugural Top Seed Open presented by Bluegrass Orthopaedics with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over fellow American Bernarda Pera, winning a thriller in her first match since helping Team USA to a victory over Latvia in the Fed Cup Qualifiers in February.

Williams, the top seed, trailed the world No. 60 for much of the two hour, 16-minute affair, and was five points from defeat in the second set. Facing a 0-40 deficit on serve at 6-4, 4-4, which would've afforded Pera the opportunity to serve for the upset, Williams authored a thrilling comeback to advance to the second round.

"I haven't played in so long. Even practice matches in training I haven't played so it was good to go three sets and win a match," Williams said in her on-court interview following the victory. 

"I knew I'd been practicing really well and I couldn't get a rhythm out here, so I was thinking 'Serena, play like you've been practicing.' I knew I could play a little bit better if I hung in there."

The former world No. 1 ultimately won eight of the last nine games of the match, and closed the victory by winning nine straight points.

"I just knew I needed to do better. I knew I could, and she hit so many winners, low to the court," Williams added in her post-match virtual press conference. "I had to get used to her game a little bit, because she played really well."

From a first-ever match against one American, a 31st meeting against another awaits next. The Williams sisters will square off in the second round, after Venus followed Serena as a victor with a much less complicated, 6-3, 6-2 win over former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka. 

All-American matches were a theme on Tuesday, as Coco Gauff and CiCi Bellis also overcame compatriots to advance to the second round. Gauff rallied from a break down in the second set to beat qualifier Caroline Dolehide in a tight two-setter, 7-5, 7-5, while Bellis eased to a 6-1, 6-2 win over lucky loser Francesca Di Lorenzo, who stepped in for No. 4 seed Amanda Anisimova after she withdrew due to a right shoulder injury. Also advancing was wildcard Shelby Rogers, who was a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 winner over Japan's Misaki Doi. 

"It was my first match back since January, and even though I probably didn't play the best tennis possible, I think that the attitude and the effort was an 'A'," Gauff said, when asked to grade her performance. "I was really nervous for today's match because I haven't played in a while, and I honestly did better than I thought I would."

Now 16, having celebrated her birthday in March, the teenager will face No. 2  seed and world No. 11 Aryna Sabalenka in the second round.

Rounding out the day, Canadian teenager Leylah Annie Fernandez scored her second win over Sloane Stephens in 2020, as she beat the 2017 US Open champion, 6-3, 6-3. The teenager had previously rallied from a set down against Stephens in March in their second-round clash in Monterrey, Mexico, in the last tournament before the tour's nearly-six month hiatus. 

The WTA International event in Nicholasville, Ky. is the first tour-level event on U.S. soil in over a year, in the second week of the WTA's return following the COVID-19 pandemic.